Thank you for your recent correspondence. I apologize for any inconvenience or frustration these recent programming changes may cause.

As the Penguins would qualify as an out-of-market team for your regional sports area, these games would normally be available on alternate Regional Sports Networks, such as ROOT sports, or with a out-of-market sports subscription, such as NHL Center Ice.

However, DIRECTV reserves the right to change, rearrange, add or delete our programming packages, the selections in those packages, our prices, and any other service we offer, at anytime as outlined in the DIRECTV Customer Agreement section 1(d). The DIRECTV Customer Agreement is available for review at www.directv.com/agreements. In an effort to sustain our programming costs and reduce rate increases, DIRECTV no longer has rights to broadcast Penguins games in certain zip codes. At this time, we are unable to reinstate the ability to view Penguins games for these zip codes.

For further assistance or if you have any questions, please contact me at 1-800-778-3417, ext. 29236. My office hours are Monday - Thursday 10:45 AM - 6:30 PM EST.

Sincerely,

KodyDIRECTV Office of the President

So there is a direct phone number for anyone that is interested. Like I said before, my internet situation doesn't allow for streaming, so I just decided to spend each hour I would normally be watching the Pens, fighting with DirecTV, ROOT, and the NHL. It will give me something to do while I'm listening to Mike Lange on a radio stream.

I talked to Tammy at the Office of the President today as well. She basically said the same thing. She was incredibly nice and apologized a lot, but said there was nothing I could do. To make matters worse, my satellite has been out since Wednesday and the earliest I could get someone out to fix it is tomorrow. Basically, Directv and I aren't great friends right now.

I have found a solution that theoretically should work for me (but unfortunately requires streaming so it wouldn't work so great for you.) I'm going to get Game Center and subscribe to Unblock-us. This should allow me to watch every Pens game on my Xbox, Computer, Roku, iPhone, basically any device where I can change the DNS settings. I'm new to this, so I'm researching and learning as I go but it seems like my best bet (aside from hoping for a VLC stream)

Sounds like the Indians games here. Figured id watch them on MLB Network the oher night, but blacked out because they are "local" in PA about 100 mi from the ballpark and STO which we don't get here has the rights. So because they are a local team, they can't be found on TV anywhere.

nocera wrote:Just discovered tonight that when using unblock-us, Game Center is listed at $99. Now I have a moral decision to make...

oh, is that why? oops

Everything went through okay?

As far as I know, renewed during the last preseaosn game and was able to view it no problem. Also goot the billing summary of 5 payments of $19.99. I can sign on with no issues so far, I'll see what happens tomorrow.

nocera wrote:Just discovered tonight that when using unblock-us, Game Center is listed at $99. Now I have a moral decision to make...

oh, is that why? oops :)

Everything went through okay?

As far as I know, renewed during the last preseaosn game and was able to view it no problem. Also goot the billing summary of 5 payments of $19.99. I can sign on with no issues so far, I'll see what happens tomorrow.

OK, just stumbled upon this thread and it has me concerned. Can anyone comment specifically on what is being blacked out for Penguins games? What zip codes, etc? Is it only those in Pittsburgh area, those outside Pittsburgh area? I noticed last week that when I tried to watch a preseason game that was on Root I got a message that it was not available in my area, and the game was NOT on NHL Network. That was my first cause for concern.

After moving from Pittsburgh to South Florida, I have had Center Ice for almost 15 years to watch Penguins games, and it is truly the main reason why I have never left DirecTV. Their Center Ice Package is far superior to what anyone else can offer, but if the Penguins games are going to be blacked out, it is useless to me, and I'll be looking to switch to some other method or another TV provider.

If you can get Root Sports as your local sports network you WILL be blacked out. If you apparently live close to the broadcast area in OH, WV and PA you might have a problem if for some reason you get a blackout.

Now using some other services blackouts on Gamecenter where you stream it online should not happen regardless if you live in Pittsburgh or if the game is on NHL Network as long as it is listed as being broadcast on Gamecenter.

If you are in Florida you will have no problems other than CenterIce blacking out games on NBC Sports or NHL Network since DirecTV carries both networks and will defer to those rights.

What it looks like though this year, if you also subscribe to the sports pack that has Root they will black out the games and force you to watch through Center Ice even if the game is on Root but they only have the other teams feed. You still had to subscribe to center ice but you could always watch the root feed unless it was a national game.

According to DirecTV, the reason I have a problem is I'm located in a specific set of zip codes where Penguins games will be blacked out on both Root Sports (using the Sports Pack) and on Center Ice. These zip codes are 4400-4799 in Ohio. You should be far enough away that it won't be a concern to you at all.

Penguins games will no longer be carried on Root Sports using the Sports Pack. If it is your local sports channel available in the Choice packages, you'll be fine. This would explain why you were blacked out on Root. Everybody who uses the Sports Pack is now blacked out.